2015 Channel Chiefs: The 50 Most Influential

2015 Channel Chiefs: The 50 Most Influential

As solution providers position themselves for growth in the year ahead, the pressure is on IT vendors and distributors to meet their partners' needs. Here's a look at the top channel chiefs and what they've been doing to ready their channel programs for 2015.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Terry Wise

Vice President of Worldwide Partner Ecosystem

Years With The Company: 7

Years In The Channel: 22

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Increase

The APN program has grown 75-plus percent in the past year and includes thousands of consulting/systems integrator and technology/ISV partners. AWS plans to more than double investments in partners this year.

APC by Schneider Electric

Shannon Sbar

VP, Channels

Years With The Company: 7

Years In The Channel: 16

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Increase

APC by Schneider Electric focused on expanding relationships with strategic accounts and offering more diverse benefits to larger partners, such as more customized marketing initiatives and unique support for project execution.

AT&T Mobile & Business Solutions

Brooks McCorcle

President, AT&T Partner Solutions

Years With The Company: 24

Years In The Channel: 2

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Increase

The number of partners in the AT&T Partner Exchange reseller program has doubled to more than 200 regional and national solution providers, more than 80 percent new to AT&T.

Axcient

Justin Moore

CEO

Years With The Company: 8.5

Years In The Channel: 13

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Stay the same

The Axcient partner community has grown in many dimensions, including a 20 percent increase in new partners signing up with Axcient over the previous year. The company is 100 percent channel, and the average deal size partners are closing has increased up to 60 percent.

Buffalo Americas

Bill Rhodes

Director of Channel Sales

Years With The Company: 9

Years In The Channel: 15

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Increase

Authorized partner average revenue increased 25 percent in 2014 while non-authorized partner average revenue grew 32 percent. Buffalo developed an inside channel sales team supporting regional sales teams, allowing it to support more solution providers.

CenturyLink

Blake Wetzel

VP, Systems Integrators, Distributors, VARs

Years With The Company: 16

Years In The Channel: 8

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Increase

CenturyLink's Channel Alliance grew significantly in 2014 by recruiting sophisticated VARs and MSPs, systems integrators, born-in-the-cloud solution providers and IT-focused consultants. The company introduced a cloud reseller program in 2014.

Ciena

Nigel Williams

VP, Global Channels, Strategic Alliances

Years With The Company: 3

Years In The Channel: 25

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Increase

Through the BizConnect partner program, deal registration utilization increased in Ciena's largest partner regions, North America and EMEA in 2014. The number of training courses taken by resellers doubled year over year.

Cisco Systems

Bruce Klein

SVP, Worldwide Partner Organization

Years With The Company: 10

Years In The Channel: 10

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Stay the same

In 2014 Cisco continued building out the Cisco Partner Ecosystem with new ISV, IoT and Cloud Provider partners. It built a recruitment engine and created incentives and enablement programs to bring in new partners.

Cisco Systems

Edison Peres

SVP, Cloud, Managed Services Partner Organization

Years With The Company: 13

Years In The Channel: 32

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Stay the same

In 2014 Cisco introduced a number of programs and initiatives designed to enable partners to capitalize on market transitions. In May Cisco formed the Cloud and Managed Services Organization, led by Peres.

Citrix

Tom Flink

VP, Worldwide Channels, Market Development Sales

Years With The Company: 7

Years In The Channel: 27

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Stay the same

Citrix is enabling partners to sell solutions, a focus that's proved successful as the company has seen a consistent increase in product sales from solution advisors and double-digit growth in individual partner productivity worldwide.

Comcast Business

Craig Schlagbaum

VP, Indirect Channels

Years With The Company: 4

Years In The Channel: 25

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Increase

The number of sales partners producing new sales revenue on a monthly basis increased significantly in 2014, indicating a growing acceptance from the partner community to feature cable as the primary solution for their business customers.

Condusiv Technologies

Nick Tidd

SVP, Global Sales

Years With The Company: 3

Years In The Channel: 22

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Stay the same

Condusiv significantly increased the discount on its deal registration program to ensure partner profitability. The company also developed and rolled out materials to assist partners in their sales process.

Dell

Cheryl Cook

VP, Global Channels, Alliances

Years With The Company: 3.5

Years In The Channel: 17

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Increase

Dell's channel revenue now represents more than 40 percent of overall Dell revenue. Its channel business is growing faster than the overall market and channel revenue growth is up year over year, double digits, in 10 of Dell's top 11 countries.

Dell

Frank Vitagliano

VP, Global Partner Strategy, Programs

Years With The Company: 1.5

Years In The Channel: 30

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Increase

In early 2014 Dell rolled out initiatives in PartnerDirect to strengthen and expand its commitment to the channel. Dell has more than 167,000 channel partners globally and more than 54 percent are engaged in online training and enablement.

Dell

Jim DeFoe

VP, Global Commercial Sales, Programs

Years With The Company: 18

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Increase

Dell launched a comprehensive plan to ramp its business with distributors globally, resulting in growth of more than 80 percent in its distribution business in 2014. Channel revenue exceeds 40 percent of Dell's total commercial revenue.

Eaton

Curtiz Gangi

Director, U.S. Channels

Years With The Company: 9

Years In The Channel: 23

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Increase

The data center market is transforming and Eaton partners are leveraging the company's solutions, competencies and resources to grow in that market. In 2014 Eaton continued to drive channel alignment and partner enablement efforts with its commercial Alliance Partners Program.

Eaton

Hervé Tardy

VP, GM

Years With The Company: 29

Years In The Channel: 29

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Increase

Eaton's average revenue per partner grew 30 percent in 2014. The focus was on serving large solution providers to grow Eaton's share of their power business, and sales efforts in the virtualization and converged infrastructure markets were expanded.

EMC

Gregg Ambulos

SVP, Global Channel Sales

Years With The Company: 18

Years In The Channel: 14

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Increase

EMC devoted 2014 to transforming its channel organization and developing the new EMC Business Partner Program. By late in the year EMC partners had brought in more than 6,500 new accounts. The number of EMC partners globally grew 10 percent.

Extreme Networks

Bob Gault

VP, Global Channels, Partners

Years With The Company: 0.1

Years In The Channel: 28

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Increase

Extreme delivered the new Extreme Partner Network designed to simplify partner engagement and maximize partner profitability through a broader technology portfolio and provide global access to service offerings.

F5 Networks

Jim Ritchings

SVP, Worldwide Channels

Years With The Company: 13

Years In The Channel: 8

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Increase

Average revenue per partner is a very important measurement at F5, especially revenue initiated by the partner, and this number continues to grow. The company's key objective is to make existing partners more productive.

FireEye

Steve Pataky

VP, Worldwide Channels, Alliances

Years With The Company: 1.5

Years In The Channel: 27

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Increase

FireEye's partner ecosystem doubled in 2014, reaching 1,000 partners worldwide, including VARs, systems integrators and managed security service providers. It also rolled out a deal registration program and deal protection for nonstandard pricing.

Fortinet

Joseph Sykora

VP, Americas Sales Operations, Channels

Years With The Company: 4.5

Years In The Channel: 4.5

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Increase

Sykora oversaw Fortinet's effort to provide training to all certified partners at no cost. Through the company's Land, Expand and Renew Campaign partners increased average deal sizes in all vertical markets.

Hewlett-Packard

Sue Barsamian

SVP, GM, Enterprise Group, Worldwide Indirect Sales

Years With The Company: 9

Years In The Channel: 2

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Increase

HP expanded its PartnerOne program to include not only resellers, but also distributors, service providers, systems integrators, ISVs and OEM integrators. The average revenue by channel partner increased last year.

Hewlett-Packard

Scott Dunsire

VP, Enterprise Group, Americas Indirect Sales

Years With The Company: 9

Years In The Channel: 28

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Stay the same

Dunsire held a number of channel management posts within HP Printing & Personal Systems for eight years, including through 2014, before being named to his new job with HP Enterprise Group in January of this year.

Hewlett-Packard

Jos Brenkel

SVP, Printing & Personal Systems, Worldwide Sales Strategy, PMO

Years With The Company: 27

Years In The Channel: 13

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Stay the same

HP redesigned its flagship PartnerOne program to make it simpler, more profitable and more predictable for partners. More than 70 percent of the U.S. Printing & Personal Systems revenue flows through channel partners.

Hewlett-Packard

Harry Gould

VP, Software, Worldwide Channels, Alliances

Years With The Company: 2

Years In The Channel: 21

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Stay the same

HP Software launched eight specializations under PartnerOne, covering enterprise security, IT operations, cloud and application life-cycle management. Partners achieve financial benefits as specialists.

IBM

Marc Dupaquier

GM, Global Business Partners

Years With The Company: 27

Years In The Channel: 20

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Increase

One of IBM's most significant programs in 2014 was the IBM Business Transformation Initiative, designed to help partners facilitate a profitable business transformation, especially around cloud, big data analytics, mobile, social and security.

Intacct

Taylor Macdonald

VP, Channel Sales

Years With The Company: 4.5

Years In The Channel: 25

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Increase

Intacct grew sales through the partner community by more than 75 percent. It also delivered more options in channel marketing programs, including a "New Business Accelerator" program designed to support creative revenue generating ideas.

Intel

Maurits Tichelman

VP, GM, Worldwide Reseller Channel Organization

Years With The Company: 25

Years In The Channel: 17

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Increase

Membership in the Intel Technology Provider program grew by 7 percent in 2014, primarily with partners in the mobility, Internet of Things and data center segments. Intel provides such benefits as training, matchmaking and more.

Intel Security

Gavin Struthers

SVP, Global Channel, Indirect Go-To-Market Operations

Years With The Company: 13

Years In The Channel: 23

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Increase

The total number of transaction partners increased 15 percent in 2014. Partner business grew in security information and event management (up 80 percent), network security (up 44 percent) and endpoint security (up 10 percent).

Intronis

Neal Bradbury

Co-Founder, VP, Channel Development

Years With The Company: 12

Years In The Channel: 12

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Stay the same

With the launch of Intronis Essentials, partners gained access to a new partner guide that provides easy access to business basics such as on-boarding instructions, marketing collateral, best sales practices, and technical information.

Lenovo

Chris Frey

VP, GM, North America Commercial Business

Years With The Company: 22

Years In The Channel: 6

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Increase

Lenovo welcomed 1,500 System x partners into the Lenovo partner community after the company's acquisition of IBM's System x business in 2014. Lenovo was on track to recruit 2,500 new VARs in North America during the year.

Microsoft

Phil Sorgen

Corporate VP, SMS&P, Worldwide Partner Group

Years With The Company: 19

Years In The Channel: 19

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? N/A

The Microsoft Partner Network continues to grow since its relaunch four years ago, particularly in the area of cloud computing: Nearly 250,000 partners are enrolled to sell Office 365 and other Microsoft cloud services.

Microsoft

Jenni Flinders

VP, U.S. SMS&P, U.S. Partner Business

Years With The Company: 14

Years In The Channel: 25

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? N/A

Microsoft is helping its traditional channel transform for a mobile-first, cloud-first world while recruiting new partners that are already mobile- and cloud-capable. Microsoft is investing more time and resources in incenting its channel via the Partner Investment Engine.

N-able by SolarWinds

Mike Cullen

SVP, Worldwide Sales, Business Strategy

Years With The Company: 14

Years In The Channel: 14

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Stay the same

N-able recruited a record number of new channel partners in 2014 and noted a year-over-year increase in the numbers of partners switching to N-able from competitive platforms.

NetApp

Thomas Stanley

SVP, Global Partner Sales, Alliances

Years With The Company: 5

Years In The Channel: 5

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Stay the same

NetApp launched its NetApp Bounty Program that targets specific customers and puts significant incentives in place to get partner assistance. The company also launched the Clustered Data On Tap Accelerate program to stimulate sales.

NetSuite

Craig West

VP, Channel Sales

Years With The Company: 12

Years In The Channel: 22

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Increase

The number of VARs and SIs building NetSuite Cloud ERP practices has grown to 300-plus worldwide and the channel has been driving 40 percent of the company's new sales. In 2014, NetSuite expanded its partner enablement program.

Palo Alto Networks

Ron Myers

VP, Worldwide Channels

Years With The Company: 2

Years In The Channel: 17

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Stay the same

Palo Alto Networks recruited channel and distribution leaders to more effectively manage the needs of distribution and partner relationships. Every channel business manager has participated in professional skills development.

PTC

Kerry Grimes

SVP, Worldwide Channel Sales

Years With The Company: 1.2

Years In The Channel: 19

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Increase

PTC reorganized its channel sales operation, creating a team of channel account managers who are focused on partner success. The CAMs will be the primary point of contact with PTC's 330-plus channel partners worldwide.

Red Hat

Mark Enzweiler

SVP, Global Channel Sales, Alliances

Years With The Company: 8

Years In The Channel: 30

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Increase

Red Hat moved beyond the data center in 2014 and made a big push into the embedded software business and the Internet of Things. The company assumed subscription renewal chores, allowing partners to focus on their customers.

Ruckus Wireless

Ron Gill

VP, Americas, Enterprise Sales

Years With The Company: 7

Years In The Channel: 30

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Increase

Ruckus launched the Ruckus Alpha Dog program as the new top tier in the Ruckus Big Dog channel program and added channel account managers to better support the channel. The Ruckus Big Dog U.S. partner base grew by 25-plus percent in 2014.

SAP

Kevin Gilroy

SVP, GM, Global SME Segment & Indirect Channels, Global Partner Operations

Years With The Company: 5

Years In The Channel: 30

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Increase

In 2014 the company expanded its channel operations specifically related to cloud computing, growing indirect cloud revenue through broader partner coverage.

SimpliVity

George Hope

VP, Global Channels

Years With The Company: 0.9

Years In The Channel: 27

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Stay the same

Hope oversaw the implementation of SimpliVity's new partner program, launched in July. SimpliVity sells 100 percent through the channel and Hope managed the development of the company's go-to-market program and created the channel organization to support it.

Sophos

Mike Valentine

SVP Worldwide Sales

Years With The Company: 2

Years In The Channel: 30

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Increase

Sophos launched a simplified partner program in North America in 2014, enabling channel partners to dramatically grow their business with attractive discounts, deal registration protection, joint-lead generation and other programs.

VCE

Chris Sullivan

VP, Global Channels, Investor Alliances

Years With The Company: 5

Years In The Channel: 15

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Increase

VCE in 2014 expanded its partner enablement offerings including building a dedicated services enablement team, encouraging partner certifications and increasing the number of partner specialization options.

Verizon Enterprise Solutions

Adam Famularo

VP, Global Channels

Years With The Company: 0.5

Years In The Channel: 16

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Increase

Verizon grew its partner base by more than 100 new partners in 2014 across all four solution tracks: cloud, IT and applications; advanced communications and networks; Mobility; and Machine to machine.

VMware

Frank Rauch

VP, Americas Partner Organization

Years With The Company: 3

Years In The Channel: 13

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Stay the same

VMware grew its partner-led sales by helping existing partners broaden their VMware product portfolios and by acquiring new partners. The company also has been transitioning its partner base from perpetual revenue to recurring revenue.

VMware, Global Partner Organization

Dave O'Callaghan

SVP, Global Partner Organization

Years With The Company: 2

Years In The Channel: 31

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Stay the same

Growth in technical certifications was 18 percent in 2014, an increase that VMware said bodes well for sales growth and improved profitability for both the company and its channel partners.

WatchGuard Technologies

Alex Thurber

VP, Worldwide Sales

Years With The Company: 2

Years In The Channel: 20

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Increase

The Watch-GuardONE partner program emphasizes reseller certification and training, instead of only sales volumes. Combined with additional partner programs, resellers can achieve combined discounts of more than 70 percent.

Xerox

Kurt Schmelz

President, U.S. Channels Group

Years With The Company: 8

Years In The Channel: 31

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company's overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months? Increase

Xerox has been expanding access to its high-end MFPs and workflow solutions to the channel, including making its A3 available through distribution. Xerox has also expanded its managed print services portfolio.